Game calls are intended to produce sounds similar to those of wild animals so as to attract them toward hunters, wildlife watchers, or scientists. Game calls have also generated competitions and performances amongst persons attempting to simulate accurately the sounds of wild animals.
One category of game call uses air, usually from a person blowing into a call. Such calls include simple pipes for forming and amplifying the user's sounds. Other such calls use a reed or diaphragm over which air is directed to cause the reed to vibrate and produce desired sounds. An example of a reed call is the “Moose Call” described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,772,823 to Herter. Herter's moose call (10) has a mouthpiece (11) with a rear end (12) for the user's mouth. The user blows into the mouthpiece (11) through a longitudinal passage (13) and over a vibratable reed (14) secured by a reed mounting structure (15). The air continues into an air passage (16) to a flared outlet end (17). The reed (14) produces a sound when the user blows air past it and the sound then passes out through the flared outlet (17).
Producing a realistic call that will attract game requires significant skill and can be beyond the abilities of most people. Many attempts have been made to provide game calls that ease the difficulties of making realistic sounds. Reed calls were one means to assist people in producing realistic sounds, but they are still difficult to use consistently and convincingly. In addition to producing a sound, a realistic call requires consistent tone as well as the ability to hit different notes. One example of a game call intended to provide a game call that can be easily manipulated to produce a variety of sounds to simulate sounds of wildlife animals is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,804 to Primos, which discloses a game call with a reed (78) in a main assembly (32), an “enhancer section” (36), a “reciprocating reed engagement member” (44), and collapsible bellows (32). The user's fingers collapse the bellows (32) and push forward the reed engagement member (44) to produce different sounds. See Primos, column 8, at lines 51 through 64. Primos does not address the issue of increasing the call's volume or stabilizing the notes produced by the reed. Moreover, Primos is directed only to reed calls and does not assist more simple game calls with which the user produces the sounds into a tube and the call serves as a simple pipe, such as the one shown as reference number 7 in FIGS. 1 and 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,987 to Brazil.
Similar problems arise with friction-type calls, often used as turkey calls. One example of such a call is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,142,253 to Peel, which contains lists and descriptions of prior art turkey calls and discloses a turkey call with an interchangeable paddle/striker (10). As with game calls that use air to produce sounds, the prior art friction-type turkey calls have difficulty producing a realistic call requires with consistent tones.
What is needed is a game call that can enhance a call's volume without increasing the amount and force of air or pressure required from the user. Also need is a game call that will stabilize the tones produced and assist in changing those tones. Also needed is a game call that can provide these improvements for many different types of game calls, whether or not they employ reeds or other sound-producing, devices, and whether or not they are small or large calls.